JIS Services

The St. Ann’s Bay Community Development Fund (CDF) has disbursed $62.3 million in loans to 598 small business operators over the last decade.
In her report at the institution’s 10th Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the St. Ann’s Bay Baptist Church Hall on April 29, Secretary/Treasurer, Delrose Mott, said that during the ten-year period, 118 persons received $10.9 million for agricultural projects; 72 persons got $6.9 million in loans for manufacturing; with the largest sum of $38.6 million going to 365 persons in the service sector. In addition, 43 persons benefited from a total of $5.9 million to undertake small business projects such as land tilling and tractor services, lawn mowing, business consultancy, water sports, meat shop, car care centre, photo studio and catering.
Miss Mott said that despite the economic climate, “we were able to meet the challenges of funding loans”, pointing out that “this was not easy but Micro Investment Development Agency (MIDA) continued to be supportive and created new and innovative means to fund us, so we maintained our prime objectives of lending to small business of all kind”.
Noting that the contribution from shareholders to the fund continued to improve, Miss Mott said there were 830 shareholders, who have purchased 66 400 shares valued at over $330,000.
Turning to the topic of investment, the Secretary/treasurer said the CDF operating expenses were being met from net proceeds from investments of $13 million in Jamaica Money Market Brokers, MIDA, Dehring Bunting & Golding, Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS), and National Commercial Bank (NCB).
She said these investments qualified the CDF to procure 64 loans through MIDA valued at over $62.5 million, “and our repayments to MIDA to date amount to some $439 million”.
In the Chairman’s report, James Walsh said that despite the challenges faced, the CDF management worked to keep the organization afloat, pointing out that new measures were implemented to improve loan disbursements, boost repayments and contain costs, “and efforts to improve the quality of customer service and provide support for clients continued to reap success”. He said individuals were also encouraged to increase savings.
At the meeting, the Board of Officers was returned en-bloc, with the exception of newly nominated Kurt Walker who replaced Hubert Mullings as a director.
Other members of the board are Alfred Green, Credit Committee Chairman; Berris Pitter, MIDA representative; and Merna Walker, Marcia Williams, Clarence Harrison, Garfield Ellis, and Easton Clarke, directors.
The St. Ann’s Bay CDF is an approved lending agency of MIDA. Persons seeking to access loans from the CDF are required to save at least 25 percent of the loan amount, to be used as security. This money is in turn used to secure loans from MIDA for disbursement.